Rhiannon Giddens was the subject of a feature on PBS NewsHour, looking at her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. "Her debut celebrates women who influenced her, some famous like Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline, others, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Libba Cotten, much less so," says NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown. "The album also showcases Giddens’ range through gospel, blues, country, and jazz." Watch the NewsHour piece here. Forbes, reviewing her recent NYC tour stop, exclaims: "Besides a thrilling voice, she comes at you with a barrage of sounds and sights and movements from an arsenal of talents that will positively floor you ... She’s a musician’s musician, and, moreover, a people’s musician, one of the best ever."
Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens was the subject of a feature profile on PBS NewsHour last night, a day after her performance at The White House in celebration of gospel music (which will be broadcast on PBS on Friday, June 26). The piece, by Jeffrey Brown, looks at Giddens' solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, recently released on Nonesuch Records, and the music it celebrates.
The piece opens with a performance from Giddens of the song "Waterboy." "It’s a powerful song, 'Waterboy,' made famous by the folk singer Odetta, now becoming a signature for a powerful new voice of today belonging to Rhiannon Giddens," says Brown. "Her debut celebrates women who influenced her, some famous like Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline, others, like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Libba Cotten, much less so ... The album also showcases Giddens’ range through gospel, blues, country, and jazz."
NewsHour also looks at Giddens' work as a founding member of Carolina Chocolate Drops and at seminal moments in her more recent career.
"One of those moments that can change a career, a concert in New York in 2013 put together by legendary music producer T Bone Burnett to celebrate the film about the early folk music scene Inside Llewyn Davis," Brown explains. "Many stars performed, Joan Baez, Jack White, Patti Smith, and Elvis Costello among them. But, by all accounts, Giddens stole the show, including with a rousing song in Gaelic." That performance led to Burnett's approaching Giddens about producing her solo album, which became Tomorrow Is My Turn.
You can watch the PBS NewsHour piece here:
And watch Giddens perform the song "Julie" for NewsHour here:
Rhiannon Giddens is currently touring the United States with music from the new album. Forbes magazine has a review of her recent sold-out show at The Town Hall in New York City.
"You could call her the greatest folk diva of our era. But diva implies that she is mainly a singer, and folk hardly describes what she does," writes Forbes' Craig Silver. She "is a mightier musical force than that. Besides a thrilling voice, she comes at you with a barrage of sounds and sights and movements from an arsenal of talents that will positively floor you." Silver later concludes: "She’s a musician’s musician, and, moreover, a people’s musician, one of the best ever. Buy her album, and be sure to catch her if she comes to your town."
Read the complete article at forbes.com.
To find out where you can catch Giddens on tour, head to nonesuch.com/on-tour. To pick up a copy of Tomorrow Is My Turn, head to iTunes or the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include a download of the complete album at checkout.
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